Operation Midway Blitz is just beginning, yet the Border Patrol commander responsible for managing this federal immigration enforcement in Chicago is counting on his expertise to navigate what local leaders describe as a surprise incursion.

Gregory Bovino, the commander-at-large for the U.S. Border Patrol and a former chief of the El Centro Sector, is heading a team of over 200 federal immigration officers, whom the Trump administration has appointed to enhance safety in Chicago.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have expressed their disapproval, pointing out that while they requested help, they were not formally notified about the deployment of numerous federal agents to the city, which ranks as the third-largest in the country.

According to sources, Bovino, who recently led a federal operation in Los Angeles, is already stationed in Chicago along with other federal officers. This move is criticized for spreading anxiety in predominantly Latino communities and nearby areas anticipated to see a rise in Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

Bovino plans to apply the strategies from Los Angeles, where the Border Patrol was credited with approximately 1,800 out of 5,000 arrests made during that operation, to the Chicago mission. He intends to focus on what he describes as “small factions of extremists” who prioritize protecting migrants targeted by federal agents.

“We’re prepared for these factions in any city,” Bovino said in an exclusive interview. “We learned some tough lessons in Los Angeles … and if this extends to other locations, we’re definitely prepared for that.”

Pritzker, meanwhile, has referred to Bovino as a “reality show wannabe” and directed people to watch the commander’s social media posts. Those posts, the governor said, indicate who is behind the federal operation that officials believe could last between 30 to 45 days.

“His history and what he posts online … is just evidence that they have terrible plans for the communities of Illinois,” Pritzker said this week, adding that White House border czar Tom Homan said that DHS officers plan to work “double-hard” as they did in Los Angeles.

Bovino responded, saying it appears that he is perhaps “living rent-free” in Pritzker’s head. Despite the criticism, Bovino, playing off the governor’s “reality show” insinuations, remains undeterred in carrying out his marching orders from the top.

“The men and women of the U.S. Border Patrol, we know what reality is,” Bovino said. “And no matter where we go anywhere in the United States, we’ll make that reality a positive reality for Ma and Pa America.”

Chicago operation draws dividing line between Illinois, White House

Pritzker has also remained a popular target of Trump, who has criticized the governor and the Chicago mayor’s handling of recent gun violence, which included eight people being shot and killed over Labor Day weekend, when 58 people overall were the victims of gun violence.

Trump pushed an AI-created image on his Truth Social account that targeted Chicago two days before DHS officials officially announced Operation Midway Blitz.

Since the operation started, DHS officers have made at least 13 arrests of migrants who previously were charged or convicted of violent crimes, including rape, criminal sexual abuse of a child and domestic violence, the agency told this week.

Bovino, using the Labor Day weekend gun violence as a standard, said that, like crackdowns involving the National Guard in Washington, D.C., the goal is to curb violent crimes and homicides.

“We don’t put up with 70 people shot or eight people dead in a weekend,” Bovino said. “That won’t happen on our watch.”

Pritzker told on Tuesday that he has made it clear that Chicago and Illinois would welcome more federal funding to put more ATF, FBI and DEA agents on the streets. But asked if he had called the Trump administration and asked for assistance, he said that he had not, saying that if the matter went to court, he would be on record for calling and asking for assistance.

Johnson and Pritzker have insisted that the increase in federal presence has nothing to do with cracking down on crime, but instead, is an attack on a Democrat-led city in which Latino communities are being targeted for large-scale immigration enforcement.

Both have instructed federal officers not to come to Chicago but know the operation will begin in force soon.

 “ICE is somewhere on the ground here,” Pritzker said Tuesday, adding he was not certain if Bovino had arrived in Chicago. “We have not seen the bulk of those ICE agents yet in communities, but we have seen some, and we know that they are gathering steam.”

Bovino claims Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is not looking truthfully at reality

No timeline has been set for when more federal officers may begin going after what the Trump administration has characterized as “the worst of the worst.” A suburban Chicago Naval Base is being used as a command center for the operation, which has drawn criticism from Illinois lawmakers even before the Chicago operation was formalized.

Bovino told that as his work in Chicago begins, his officers will continue to act properly in carrying out the task with which they are challenged. Pritzker has been critical of ICE and of Homan, accusing the border czar Tuesday of knowing racial profiling was taking place during immigration enforcement operations while Homan served as ICE’s director.

Bovino, citing this week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that lifts restrictions on ICE officers in Los Angeles imposed by a federal judge’s previous ruling, said that the high court’s decision shows that ICE and other federal immigration officers have, and continue to act within the confines of the law.

But as Pritzker and other local officials accuse agencies like ICE and Customs and Border Protection of inciting fear in neighborhoods with large Latino populations, Bovino suggested that Pritzker and Johnson are prioritizing politics and protecting dangerous undocumented immigrants over the safety of residents.

Bovino said he would speak with Pritzker if given the chance, but he said the question would center around whether the Illinois governor would be willing to hear the truth about what is happening in local communities. He suggests Prtizker is not and should spend more time talking to people concerned with Chicago’s crime issues.

“I think the extremists are more afraid of us coming in,” Bovino told . “The folks that choose illegal aliens over American citizens and over legal immigrants, perhaps those are the ones that are scared.

“But the citizens I speak to, especially those inner-city residents who have been marginalized, gentrified, and moved on by this massive influx of illegal immigrants …those are the folks that are heralding ICE, Border Patrol and those allied law enforcement agencies who are coming into these states because those are the ones who know what’s at stake.”